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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, we are Indosport. With me, John Molloy, we cover sport and we have things like this.
I was kind of blunt. Well, yeah, world's not fair. You have stage four cancer. Oh, well, world's not fair. But sometimes I think that bluntness helps me. And like me and Tommy have a terrible sense of humour. I think it's really hard for people who don't know us very well because sometimes we throw out something really, really dark and people are like, Jesus, Ciara.
They haven't been around me on this process long enough just yet for me to throw out a little bit of that. But me and Tommy find our ways to cope.
For the second season in a row, Leinster are URC champions. Once again, Leo Cullen's men delivered a dominant final performance to put the Bulls to the sword in Crowe Park. This year it was 36-7. Last year it was 36-7. But there was plenty of hallmarks across both games. Leinster, really impressive. The Bulls, really poor.
And we're going to get into all of it on today's special Sunday episode of the Left Wing Podcast. Will Slattery here with you. A few logistical challenges this week, men. We're coming to you a little earlier than usual. But I'm glad to be joined by Luke Fitzgerald as always. Luke, how are you? Goodwill, how are you? Doing very well, doing very well. Last part of the club season.
Of course, we will be with you right throughout the international window to come as well. Jonathan Bradley is also with me. Jonathan, how are you getting on?
I'm good. I quite like this Sunday vibe to the park. It's a relaxed atmosphere too.
Very relaxed. I'm actually wearing shorts.
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Chapter 2: How did Leinster secure the URC title against the Bulls?
You won't be able to see me on YouTube, but you're going to see my top. We're all in shorts. A reminder, the Left Wing Podcast is sponsored by Energia. Energia sponsors rugby in Ireland at all levels. At grassroots with the Energia AIL and as official energy partner to Leinster, Connacht and the Irish men's and women's teams.
The Energy of Rugby for All initiative supports inclusion, welcoming everyone of all abilities to participate in the game. Find out more at energy.ie forward slash rugby and avail of an exclusive home energy offer for rugby fans. So, lads, Leinster, URC champions again. They are the first team to retain the title in the URC era.
They're the first team to win the title twice also in the URC era since the South African teams joined in the 21-22 season last year. Jonathan, it's funny, it's so similar to last year. 36-7, 32-7, the Bulls. I feel like I'm the boy who cried Bulls. Because for two years in a row, we've spent the whole week up to the final talking about this Bulls team and the contest we hoped to get.
And two years in a row, they've delivered very, very little. Now, Leinster were brilliant, I thought. So many good individual performances collectively. Like, say, the error count and that kind of thing that we discussed was way, way, way, way down.
They really brought the best, probably, or most accurate performance of their season to the final, which is what you want to see, obviously, if you're preparing for a final. What's your assessment of how things unfold on Friday night, Jonathan?
Yeah, I think you can separate the two. I think you can talk about how good Leinster were without necessarily believing that that was the sole reason for why the Bulls looked so poor. I think they didn't pitch up. That's not to take anything away from Leinster. I thought Leinster were slick.
I thought their attack, again, as we've seen in patches over the last couple of weeks, I thought their attack was slick. I didn't think the Bulls could live with them lived with them whenever they decided to shift the ball at pace out wide. The Bulls' defensive strength, I think, is in the tight exchanges.
I think as soon as Leinster went up a gear and got the ball out wide, mainly through the hands of Sam Prendergast to give him his dues, I thought they looked
really really dangerous really really threatening and there was like there was a lot to like about that length of performance even in terms of whenever they were stretched I think they did stand up you know you can go back to I suppose the two disallowed tries
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Chapter 3: What were the standout performances in Leinster's final match?
And it normally wouldn't be that harsh. I mean, it's the second final they have in show, but like even the last kick before halftime, Pollard was kicking it dead. You kind of go like, that was, that was for a player of his experience and quality, like that was just unforgivable, you know? So yeah, yeah. Bad all around from them. And yeah, really, really good from Leinster.
I thought that was really pleased them.
Yeah. Well, we'll go back into Atlanta stuff in a second. But while we're on the Bulls, Jonathan, I just made a list of some of their first half mistakes because I was so disappointed with what they brought because I was hoping for this great contest. They only spent 20 minutes of the 40 minutes down to 14 men with two very cheap yellow cards. The Leroux one was the same.
He just flies a hand up there and knocks it forward. Like, you know, Andre Pollard, you know, dropping that first ball that Tommy O'Brien just runs straight in from 50 metres. Like, that's so cheap. Like, Pollard had another knock on later in the half after a Leinster chip. I didn't ruin nor trim the ball. I kind of fumbled it.
Like, when they finally did get a bit of territory, I think they were probably 19-0 down at this stage. Like, Moody knocked it on in the Leinster 22. Like, they were dominated in the air. Like, even the three points they give away, like... Osborne's knees are so clearly on the ground. The referee is saying it's on the ground. And then two seconds, three seconds, goodbye.
And Hanna comes and just rips the ball out. Three points before the post. Just so lazy and cheap. And just clueless play. When you know the rules. And then obviously, yeah, the Pollard one right on half-time. Like... The game isn't technically done. Like, it felt done. But if they scored there, we saw how the second half went.
They did have a little bit of territory and some harsh tries probably just allowed it. Definitely one of them anyway. Bizarre. Such a litany of mistakes. And they cleaned out in the air as well. Yeah, their line-out completely malfunctioned. This was all in the first half. And, like, 22-0 at halftime. Like, after 25 minutes, it was 19-0. Like, similar to last year. Yeah.
just very abject I feel like Jake White had a hard time subsequently the reason they played so bad is because Jake White was basically out the door they can't blame him this time they had a better team on the pitch than they did last year and played even worse I would say
Well, that's it, because I think we spent a lot of the past two weeks talking about how we didn't think we were going to get the same final that we got the year before. And then the way the first half especially played out, it felt identical, especially in terms of the scoreline. It felt like we were in the exact same position that we'd been in 12 months.
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Chapter 4: What factors contributed to the Bulls' disappointing performance?
You know, so... Yeah, really, really weird, you know, really, really weird. And a lot of unusual mistakes from them, you know, like very, like they weren't tuned in or like they weren't appreciating the kind of the size of the occasion.
Yeah, it was very weird. Because like last year, there was also the added thing of, you know, they had a break week this time. So they could have planned any way they wanted. They could have stayed in Dublin. If they wanted to stay in Dublin, they decided to go back to South Africa and then come back.
So I kind of take away the travel out of it because they had that little bit of a break that you wouldn't have gotten in previous years. And the Jake White thing is gone. They have a much stronger team than they did last time. And now Leinster were really good. And you say, well, some of that is good Leinster play, which some of it is. Some of it is just the Bulls just making brain frags.
Not all in five minutes, you're kind of going, oh, like, come on. They were likely, do you remember, they were like Leinster's, The last two tries, Leinster conceded against Bordeaux. They had a real similar ring to just kind of sloppy, bad reactions, you know, like people not being tuned in. Like, you think about the people making those mistakes as well.
Like, you know, Harry Byrne throwing the intercept in the final. Like, it was slow motion that nearly happened. Do you know what I mean? Like, Pollard drops the ball for this one. Or, you know, like, is that like not going up to collect a high ball that's dropping five meters from your try line? Like... You know, like just mad stuff, like really weird. And then kicking the ball dead, like, oh.
Yeah, because the Pollard drop, the Pollard drop for the Tommy O'Brien draw is particularly, you know, punitive because to say like, you know, one minute in, Moody knocks the ball on, they get a yellow card, but the Bulls can defend that first set very well. Like they end up getting a turnover near their own line and...
you're thinking, okay, like, they've maybe weathered that storm, and then they actually have a bit of territory. Like, they're in the Leinster half. Pollard, the ball just goes out behind him, and all of a sudden, it's a seven-pointer, and then they get... To be honest, the game felt over after that moment. Even though it was only 7-0, I just thought, okay, here we go again.
It's got to be the same as last year, and Leinster kind of just kicked on from there, but... I don't know. Yeah, the Bulls piece of it is part of the story. But Jonathan, Luke mentioned a lot of individuals from Leinster as well, who I thought did play really well. Joe McCarthy was brilliant. I would have him close to man of the match. He got a few steals.
There was that impressive period where he made a blocked in from a box kick, then kind of snagged a wrench in the backfield and kind of drove him back 10 metres. It was one of his more powerful all-action performances. And again, we've seen him have good games this year, but maybe some sloppy discipline stuff.
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Chapter 5: How did Sam Prendergast's performance impact Leinster's future?
And it can go away. You can shut up that conversation. He's young enough to shut up that conversation so that this doesn't become an issue that gets worse for him throughout his career. So very pleased for him. And he goes into the summer tour, I'd say, you know, in pole position, I would think. And we know the coach wants to pick him. So I think that was, uh, that was pleasing for him.
And I think he should probably get selected, I think, for the Irish team. Um, so it'll be interesting to see if he can kind of carry that on and keep that kind of trajectory going, um, on the defensive side of the ball. But on the attacking side, very good. And, uh, I thought some lovely options selected at different times.
Like there's some of the high balls when they were, you know, the one for, I think, Ringrose gets it back in the second half. Lovely. Love that. Good pressure play. You know, the temptation is when you're ahead that you just keep kind of ball playing. But I think sometimes it can be a great time to actually put up nice kind of high percentage kicks. And I thought he did that well. But I think...
Still a little bit of room to improve, particularly when it gets a little bit loose and he kind of hacks a kick. There was ones where he kind of put some bad grubber, one or two bad, like a weird grubber in, or he puts a kind of shaky kick over line-out turnover in the first half. I think he did a banana kick. It was fairly poor, you know what I mean?
So there's still a few of those parts of this game he can improve. But overall, excellent display and hoping he can kick on now.
Yeah, it's interesting, Jonathan, because outside of, say, Sam Prendergast, who I'm sure was absolutely chuffed with how Friday night went, I'd say Leo Cullen was also delighted because we discussed it a few weeks ago.
I remember, I think you were on with us, maybe it was Rudd, but how, like, Leo Cullen took a bit of a gamble by basically saying, we're not picking Kieran Frawley for the remainder of the season. We're going with the guys we have. And...
and it paid off like in the end they're winning the league and they did it without caring for Raleigh so now they can point and say look we don't really need him that much we have look at our out halves that we have and how they delivered and Prendergast definitely delivered on Friday It was an interesting competition it was Rod that you had on this board it was interesting I suppose the two sides of that coin of uh
whether Leo Cullen would jeopardize winning the ERC if he really felt Kieran Frawley was the better choice regardless of the move. But your lip talks about what it means going forward into that summer term. I think that's really the interesting next stepping point here because we were talking last week about what would it mean with Jack Crowley out
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of injuries for Leinster's summer tour?
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OK, so that's Sam Prendergast's performance. I just want to quickly talk about the second half TMO decisions, because even though Leinster ended up hammering the Bulls, like, it's kind of 29-7 when they had, I think, the first try disallowed. Or was it 29-0 the other time? Well, yeah, the Harold Vorster one disallowed.
Yeah, no, they hadn't scored.
They hadn't scored then, yeah, sorry. So it was 29-0 when the Worcester one was disallowed, which clearly looked on the replay to mean that the ball was on the line. That was bizarre. I don't care. That was like a dereliction of duty by the officials that they didn't spot that because it was a funny interaction where Worcester was like, no, no, I scored.
And they're like, okay, I want you to stand here with me. Yeah, even that was bizarre. They watched it together. I was like, that was kind of strange. But what's he going to do, like tell him off after if it doesn't happen? The ball was clearly on the line. So I don't, we've kind of said this before, like when PRD is involved in a game,
They sometimes take on these moments or these things kind of, these random things kind of happen. But like, you have to be led by your TMO a bit as well. Like he's sitting in the bunker looking at this. Like the ball was definitely on the line, I thought. And then obviously then there was the forward pass one that was disallowed as well. Like one angle, it does look like a forward pass.
There's another angle where it doesn't look like a forward pass.
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Chapter 7: How do the refereeing decisions affect the perception of the match?
I think it would have been, it would have been nicer to have seen them go over to Glasgow and see if they could turn them over, over there. I feel like I would have been feeling a bit more confident about where they're, what kind of direction of travel. Yeah.
And I think Jonathan was making a lot of sense there around, you know, where this team wants to be and maybe where we feel they are after the kind of cup performances. You know, I think a little bit of it is overdone in that, you know, I still think, I saw some chat there a couple of weeks ago, like from, you know, ex-English players saying,
Both of whom I respect their opinion, but they always blow themselves up. They're definitely better than Bath and they're definitely better than Northampton. That's not up for debate. But the two French teams are streets ahead of them now, I think. And that's the concerning thing for me.
When you combine that with age profiles, injury profiles, the kind of key guys, not being able to get guys on the park as much as you'd like.
and what's coming behind I'm just a little bit I just don't see I don't see the next cup win put it that way and I'd like to be thinking like when I see a point loss to La Rochelle and a bit of a collapse you know for kind of 40-50 minutes I'm kind of going oh look jeez next year if they play better for 10 minutes of that 40 minutes where they collapse they win that game you know I can kind of see a win whereas now I'm kind of going oh I really don't know like they really would have to play above what I think of this team to get the win so
Feels like a lot has to change. It feels like the bits of the key parts of the team are still in flux, like the 10 situation. You know, obviously, like, you know, we laud Prendergast, but still, the jury's out there. When you come up against Jalabar or you come up against, you know, the best 10s, like, have you... Have we got enough there? I don't...
he'll need a big season next year uh for me for to convince me of that i need to see some consistency against teams that are kind of putting it up to you as well when you're under pressure when you've got to defend for long periods um and um yeah so so i'm probably somewhere in the middle guys i it feels like the wrong thing to say when you've won when you've won one of the competitions you're you're involved in and you've got to the final and the other one but
I don't know. My feeling is that this wasn't a successful season. That's how I feel about it. And I think obviously Leinster probably have tried to rewrite maybe some recent history around even how they've talked about this competition, the league. And I think that's to kind of suit the narrative to take a little bit of pressure off.
And I don't think that's because they still believe this is the one they want to win. You know? Is that... No, I agree completely.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for Leinster after this season?
They do seem to be maybe one of those building forces. They obviously have a lot of money with Altrad who owns the team.
Toulouse have that little bit of...
you know United at their best Chelsea at their best where they're just mentally I feel like the other French teams find it very hard to get over the line again but I'd be intrigued to know what a French podcast is saying about Toulouse this season because they got smoked by Bordeaux you know in the end they lost by 15 points and they got smoked in the semi-final last year by Bordeaux as well even though they're going for 4-0 in the top 14 which is like considering how competitive that league is at home or whatever they have a bit of a hoodoo over everyone there yeah obviously they've got a great name a great pedigree but still
Well yeah like Bordeaux last year was the first time Toulouse had ever lost to a French team in the Champions Cup so they definitely had that kind of mental barrier kind of advantage until this Bordeaux team but the fact that they didn't make the playoffs was very noteworthy and to the point Jonathan made about like it is difficult to compete on two fronts more so in France to be fair where it's a very competitive league.
Just to finish up quickly guys it's on the Ireland squad news and obviously Doris out Tommy O'Brien out All of a sudden, maybe it opens the door for Jacob Stockdale, Jonathan, potentially, which, again, wouldn't have seemed very likely a couple of weeks ago. Caelan Dorris out, Jack Cohen probably like for like replacement at number eight. And we'll see who they end up going with at number six.
Keane Prendergast getting a lot of kind of positive.
Two words. Must be pleased seeing the two words go. That's great news, I think. That'll be brilliant for them.
Yeah, it's an unbelievable, unbelievable story, especially for for Zach, you know. going to, I suppose, what would be considered a non-rugby school, my own school, so I'm not having to go with them, but a non-traditional rugby school in terms of winning school's cups. What school is that? Down High and Down Patrick.
So that was where Zach Wentworth went to RBAI and had this sort of trajectory of, you know, being a standout player in a team that was going to win a school's cup.
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